"The cuddly George W. Bush ... is a war criminal. He doesn’t deserve an inch of rehabilitation."

How soon we forget.

The Perils of the New, Shiny George W. Bush, by Branko Marcetic (Jacobin)

The cuddly George W. Bush who paints pictures of dogs and Jay Leno is a war criminal. He doesn’t deserve an inch of rehabilitation.

George W. Bush has to be high in the running for the worst president in the history of the republic, and he probably would’ve reigned unchallenged for at least a few decades had Hillary Clinton’s inept campaign not led to her defeat. As it is, the less than two months of Donald Trump’s volatile presidency suggests his full four years will at least be neck and neck with Bush’s eight.

Still, Bush’s presidency was historically disastrous, which makes it understandable that since Trump’s ascent, Bush appears to be waging an understated media campaign to rehabilitate his image — one which the media has happily assisted him with.

Trump’s insanity has led many liberals and other former Bush opponents to start “reconsidering” Bush’s presidency. Slate implored Bush to “speak to his party” about its latest descent into Islamophobia. “Compared to Donald Trump, George W. Bush looks like a paragon of statesmanship,” Francis Fukuyama wrote in 2015. Photos of everyone from Hillary Clinton to Michelle Obama embracing Bush have gone viral, while the former president recently yukked it up with Ellen Degeneres on her talk show.

More recently, Bush earned accolades for saying he didn’t like “the racism” and “name-calling” of the Trump era, and that the media was “indispensable to democracy” — fairly innocuous comments that are apparently grounds for heroism when stated by Bush.

Much of Bush’s rehabilitation is, as the Washington Post recently documented, both a result of the fact that next to Trump, just about anyone compares favorably, and because of a nice speech Bush delivered in 2001 as he prepared to murder and torture thousands of Muslims, telling Americans that “Islam is peace,” speaking out against recent hate crimes, and assuring American Muslims he wouldn’t resurrect Roosevelt-style mass internment. (It is apparently an admirable and statesmanlike thing to pledge not to round up innocent people in camps without due process based on their religion).

Bush and his supporters have often said that history would vindicate his presidency. It hasn’t and it won’t, even if Trump takes us to new lows.

But I already knew W was awful.

Another web site noted that Smith's biography is unlikely to be shelved at the GWB presidential library. I probably won't buy it, either. Having long been in agreement with the book's first and last sentences, what can it tell me that I didn't already know?

Review: ‘Bush,’ a Biography as Scathing Indictment, by Peter Baker (NYT)

Bush, by Jean Edward Smith
Illustrated. 808 pages. Simon & Schuster.

 ... Mr. Smith leaves no mystery where he stands on Mr. Bush’s place in history. The first sentence of his book: “Rarely in the history of the United States has the nation been so ill-served as during the presidency of George W. Bush.”

The last: “Whether George W. Bush was the worst president in American history will be long debated, but his decision to invade Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president.”

Sunday sermon: "A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran."

Presupposing either of them reads. See also John Nichols at The Nation: A Dying Iraq Vet's Indictment of Bush and Cheney

The Last Letter

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

"The Deafness Before the Storm."

Keith Olbermann's feed at Twitter is worth a glance, too.

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: The Deafness Before the Storm, by Kurt Eichenwald (New York Times)

... I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.

They're not war crimes if we commit them, Archbishop Tutu. If you don't believe it, just ask the folks at Chick-fil-A.

Perhaps anticipating George W. Bush's impending arraignment on Desmond Tutu's charges, GOP flunkies kept the mercifully retired, worst president in American history safely away from Tampa.

As Bill Clinton is resurrected by the Democrats, George W. Bush is being erased by the GOP - as if an entire eight years of American history hadn't happened.

The best prosecution strategy would be to force Blair and Bush to share a jail cell. A few days of that, and the Brit would turn Hague's evidence faster than you can say, "Mrs. Armageddi thinks Baghdad is a street in Coffey's district, right by the sewage treatment plant."

Desmond Tutu calls for Blair and Bush to be tried over Iraq, at BBC News

Tony Blair and George W Bush should be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague over the Iraq war, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said.

Writing in the UK's Observer newspaper, he accused the former leaders of lying about weapons of mass destruction.

"The king of bad presidents: George W. Bush."

This pretty much sumarizes Dubya's unprecedented reign of error:

"The king of bad presidents: George W. Bush."

As President George W. Bush gets ready to leave the White House, it says a lot that the most frequently asked question about his place in history is whether he's the worst president ever, or just in the top five or six.

I foresee the historical marker at the corner of Market and Bank: "One Southern Indiana brought the worst president ever to visit here in 2007. Thanks, guys -- may we not have another?"

Sunday newspaper delivery shuffle.

Our household subscription to the Sunday edition of the Courier-Journal is history. Louisville's once great, now perhaps irreparably degraded newspaper has been replaced by the New York Times, courtesy of Sunday home delivery.

We continue to subscribe to the Tribune on a daily basis.

Today's NYT includes another marvelous op-ed piece by Frank Rich. With regard to the impending departure of the current occupant, undoubtedly the worst president in American history, there's simply no such thing as piling on.

A President Forgotten but Not Gone, by Frank Rich (New York Times).

The last NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on Bush’s presidency found that 79 percent of Americans will not miss him after he leaves the White House. He is being forgotten already, even if he’s not yet gone. You start to pity him until you remember how vast the wreckage is. It stretches from the Middle East to Wall Street to Main Street and even into the heavens, which have been a safe haven for toxins under his passive stewardship. The discrepancy between the grandeur of the failure and the stature of the man is a puzzlement. We are still trying to compute it.

Them's fightin' shoes ... we oughta invade EYE-rack ... wait -- been there, done that ...

From LEO's blog, Fat Lip, comes an appreciation of metaphor.

Shoe toss: In case you were under a rock (Iraq?) this weekend, below is the video of Iraqi TV reporter Muntader al-Zaidi winging his shoes at President Bush. It’s a terrible insult in Iraqi culture to throw your shoes at someone — the person on the receiving end is thought to be lower than shoes, or in the dirt, and so on. Just as fascinating as the toss (and Bush’s expert ducking, which is metaphorically significant if nothing else) is the reaction in Iraq: Most people are referring to the shoe toss as an act of heroic defiance.

(Link to video)

A reign of error that began with a stolen election now ends with long overdue metaphor, though not from a member of America's journalistic cadre, which spared the symbolic shoes for far too long as W enthusiastically cheapened the country's global brand for the sake of Falangist ideology.

Barack Obama wins the presidency, and W ducks Iraqi footwear.

Closure ... but jeez, what's it going to be like playing the role of happy drunk?

Another funny Friday rolls around.

Cartoon from The Times of London, as reposted here.

Straight from the Old News Dep't.

Bush loyalist says president relied on propaganda for Iraq war

If he had been the batter, it would have been a called third strike.

The ceremonial first pitch of the Washington Nationals home opener was just thrown by the worst president ever, George W. Bush.

It was high and well out of the strike zone, and never has imagery been more appropriate.

Geography as the study of yokel mouths agaping.

My wife is a social worker.

For the uninitiated, here is a random web definition of her job: “A social worker is a professional trained to talk with people and their families about emotional or physical needs, and to find them support services.”

Upon returning to the office after our recently concluded holiday, D. noted that we’d just come back from a trip to Europe.

Came the immediate reply: “Did you fly or drive?”

No, not from a client ... from a co-worker.

I’m trying to imagine a European with an elementary school education working in a similar position and making a similar comment, but I can’t. It’s simply inconceivable. All of which reminds me of Bill Maher’s comments in his most recent contribution to Rolling Stone magazine, cleverly entitled “Dickheads of the Year”:

#7: The Solid Quarter

That twenty-five percent of America who would not desert George Bush if he ran over Dakota Fanning with his pickup truck on the White House lawn. Is it a coincidence that twenty-five percent is also the number of people who, in an AP poll of predictions for 2007, said they expect Jesus Christ to return this year!? I don't think it is.

Has anyone ever figured out why it is the case that we Americans so often accept insufficient education as a birthright? My guess has always been that we need an inadequately educated populace to be susceptible to sales pitches so that the consumer economy can continue to hum, but maybe there's more to it than that. After all, we elected Dubya -- not twice, but once.

Here's what Maher has to say about the lame duck in chief:

Who will tell this president what everyone but him already knows? The theory of evolution. And the times tables. And where the sun goes at night. And that Iraq is going to be three different countries. And that everyone hates us and we've run our military into the ground and the Taliban is back and we still haven't caught bin Laden and the economy is tanking and we wasted eight years blowing the oil companies while the Earth is melting. We had a pretty nice house when this Cat in the Hat of presidents came in and made the mess of all time. And who's going to clean it all up — Rudy Giuliani?

Readers, just remember that nothing's so bad that it can't be cured with a few Progressive Pints, and have a wonderful holiday ... even those of you who are cursing me at this very moment.

One Southern Indiana: Much to answer for, and most (perhaps all) of it at taxpayer expense.

At NAC on Tuesday: Photos: No torture for a downtown bridge.

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Readers know where to go for coverage of yesterday’s visit by George W. Bush to New Albany, so those in need of the recap, consult the usual Courier and Tribune sources.

Meanwhile, the presidential visit was a surreal exercise in boarded tight window art at taxpayer expense, a massive logistics boondoggle at taxpayer expense, a transparent campaign rally for Mike Sodrel at taxpayer expense, a celebration of petro-imperialism overseas at taxpayer expense, and worst of all, a striking example of One Southern Indiana’s fawning and obsequious approval of outrages ranging from Constitutional erosion to institutionalized torture … and, yes, also at taxpayer expense.

With all these examples of tax revenue gone horribly awry, you’d have thought that the slumlord lobby would have been out in full force to protest. How incredibly strange that they weren’t.

How do you account for that? Truly, irony must be dead hereabouts.

Here are two of yesterday’s comments, lifted here to the marquee.

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Mr. G wrote:

Add the link to Bob Hill's column in (Tuesday’s) Courier-Journal. It pretty accurately represents all the questions attendees were asking about this "event".

(Here is Hill's column)

Where is ISI's head in conceiving of this as useful or representative of our region's aspirations or needs?

It's entertaining to look at the enlarged photo of the Secret Service guys and imagine some captions: "Where will he have us going next?" "Is this what we have to do to find a 'friendly' audience?" "Small enough town equals dignitaries willing to appear enthusiastic." "Do these people know he's just vetoed spending for human services, education and job retraining?"

None of, not one, of the SS agents looks like he's having a good time and it's not because they think a sniper is going to jump up on the roof of The Fair Store building.

Also puzzling was ISI's press release claiming sponsors for today's visit was ISI, the chamber of commerce and local economic development groups--as if they were separate entities and not those who merged to create ISI.

Who's drunk the Kool Aid and who’s zooming who?

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NAC’s Bluegill agreed:

Exactly, mr g.

I'm very sorry I couldn't make it today. Thank you for your sign, Roger.

Hopefully, Develop New Albany, who recently signed on as a 1SI member, and Mayor-elect England, who mentioned them repeatedly while campaigning, will have the wherewithal to speak out against such an egregious abuse of development dollars and the public trust.

The entire event amounted to nothing but partisan politics on behalf of a man and his minions who've consistently implemented policies of and advocated for (usually in that order since they had to be caught first) Constitutional destruction and the torture, maiming, and killing of hundreds of thousands.

1SI should be ashamed. It will be interesting to see what the heavy hitters on their board have to say about today's embarrassment.

1SI Chair Kerry Stemler even announced "They love you" from the stage during the introduction.

Photos: No torture for a downtown bridge.

Spitballs at Shrub: See you downtown today.

According to the Louisville Peace Action Community (LPAC), there'll be a formal protest today as President George W. Bush speaks about the economy at the Grand, circa 1:15 p.m.

"Join the protest against Bush, 12:15 - 2:00 p.m. on the north side of Market St., as close to the Grand as possible."

Speaking of the economy, it currently costs a buck forty five to buy a Euro. There's a waiting list to buy stainless steel kegs and hops (for use in beer) -- if you can get 'em at all. Has it occurred to you that with ten minutes worth of expenditure in Iraq, we could revitalize the whole of downtown New Albany?

Do you think this has occurred to the sycophants at 1SI? As Bluegill presciently noted a couple days ago, "Maybe we could open a high tech torture center to kick off the new industrial park and promote the bridges project."

Dave Clancy's former digs at the late, lamented Bistro New Albany have been transformed into Secret Service Central for Dubya's latest propagandistic incursion, and although Mike Sodrel is beaming, the reality of black clad snipers occupying space near to where I once dined on marvelous beef and satisfying progressive pints is damned near sickening.

I feel violated -- much like the Constitution during Bush's disastrous tenure in office.

Protesting? See you down there, and remember: Connor's Place for post-protest ales.

See: Not big enough, Mr. Dalby: If only it were Bono, and not merely a spectacularly failed president.

Not big enough, Mr. Dalby: If only it were Bono, and not merely a spectacularly failed president.

U2's singer could provide an international perspective ... and he can even play an instrument, too.

Someone tell Dubya’s stonefaced advance men that I’ll consider listening to the lame duck’s ungrammatical blather -- consider, mind you -- only so long as he promises to bring, say, 50 kilos of Cascades hops with him as a love offering.

I’ll even wear my 8664 t-shirt to the party to annoy 1SI’s enduringly exurban brain trust, but only if hops are part of the deal.

Best throw in a few kilos of Centennial, too. Those are my favorite.

Tell you what: Shriveled shrub brings the hop bribe, and I'll bring a few gallons of Elector ale to lubricate the proceedings. After all, Elector's motto is "It Makes Democracy Pointless," which naturally refers to the original stolen election of 2000.

Yes, President Bush to visit New Albany Tuesday (News-Tribune).

The visit was the idea of One Southern Indiana Chief Executive Officer Michael Dalby. The organization wanted to bring in a speaker and decided to think big, (1SI chairman of the board Kerry) Stemler said.

One Southern Indiana asked the president to visit in order to give members a national perspective on economic matters. Stemler said the agency was quite fortunate to have him agree to do so.

Truly, it gets more and more difficult these days to suppress a yawn.

Does anyone really think this lastest drain on the local law enforcement budget would be happening if not for Mike “Hot Wheels” Sodrel’s wacko decision to spend another couple million dollars of Republican slush money from Mississippi, Idaho, and Riyadh to assist in avenging his providential 2006 loss to Baron Hill?

Looks like the "Sodrel 2008" campaign ads start on Tuesday. It’s going to be a long, long year, and there aren't enough Shop-Vacs in all of the former Northwest Territory to clean up the mud soon to be generated.

On the bright side, earlier today I escorted my wife’s British cousin to the Muhammad Ali Center, where she was delighted to learn more about a true American hero.

Oddly, we did not see Diane McCartin Benedetti there.

Maybe next time, eh?

I've been wondering, too.

Torture ... from John Manzo's blog.

So, our current President ran on values. They certainly aren't the values of Christianity, they certainly aren't the values of mainstream ethical philosophy, so it makes me wonder just whose values he ran on and by whose values he governs.

Frank Rich on George W. Bush's "fundamental cowardice."

Each week on Monday, or occasionally Tuesday, my good friend Jerry provides the Confidential household with a gently used copy of the previous Sunday’s New York Times.

The very first thing I do is profusely thank Jerry. The second is to read Frank Rich’s op-ed commentary. Usually I reread it at least once. To me, Rich is the man, and not just because I’m in complete agreement with histypically scathing assessments of the failed Bush administration.

It’s because he writes extremely well. Last Sunday, Rich once again hit the middle of the target.

A Profile in Cowardice, by Frank Rich (The New York Times; Sunday 08 July 2007).

There was never any question that President Bush would grant amnesty to Scooter Libby, the man who knows too much about the lies told to sell the war in Iraq. The only questions were when, and how, Mr. Bush would buy Mr. Libby's silence. Now we have the answers, and they're at least as incriminating as the act itself. They reveal the continued ferocity of a White House cover-up and expose the true character of a commander in chief whose tough-guy shtick can no longer camouflage his fundamental cowardice.

While we’re on the topic, and not to exclude other executive branch worthies, here’s the latest from filmmaker Robert Greenwald.

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Dear activists, colleagues and friends,

That's right, we said the "I" word. And you should be saying it too -- to your family, your friends, your neighbors, your pets and the hearty 26% of Americans who somehow still believe the Bush/Cheney team more worthy of sitting in the Oval Office than an undisclosed location stripped of all authority to further damage the country we love.

You'll want to say it even more after watching our video with the evidence for impeachment right there: http://impeachcheney.org/?utm_source=rgemail

Dick Cheney has been a malevolent force on the checks and balances of American government for over six years. He has subverted government processes to lead us into this tragedy in Iraq, and is now seeking to do the same with Iran. Two countries, mind you, he did business with while CEO of Halliburton.

We are at an important moment in American history. For if we don't take action in light of the High Crimes and Misdemeanors committed by one Richard Cheney, we might as well throw the word away. Because there will never be a time when it is more justified.

Sign the petition: http://impeachcheney.org/petition.php?utm_source=rgemail

14 representatives already support H. Res 333, the articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney. Your signatures will be used to get other House members to to sign on. We are working with a substantial and growing coalition led by Democrats.com and AfterDowningStreet.org.

Let's make this travesty a turning point in our history. Please join us in restoring democratic principles to our government by IMPEACHING DICK CHENEY.

Sincerely,
Robert, Cliff, Paris, Jim G and the entire Brave New Films team

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Did someone mention a troika?

Or more precisely, will Mike “Hot Wheels” Sodrel again call on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to preach to the Ninth District’s conservative cadres as part of his next campaign against Baron Hill?

The GOP had best break out the Kool-Aid. The faithful are going to be needing it.

Albania: Sent down to the Bush leagues.

I’ve not visited “old” Albania since 1994, and yet before today it would have been difficult to persuade me that the impoverished ex-Communist Balkan country might ever be more surreal now than it was then.

Er … never mind.

Bush greeted as hero in Albania.

Looks like I picked a bad Monday to stop drinking. Here’s the previously published account of my first and only trip to the domain of Enver Hoxha:

"Old" Albania: Beer in the Land of the Eagle.

From one lame duck to another.

Two of the protesters who gathered across Silver Street to provide balance to the machinations of the presidential hagiography machine came into the pub afterward and said that the crowd of dissidents was sizeable, and that’s a source of great joy here in the curmudgeon’s lair. It wasn't the only source of amusement on a slow news day.

NAC had been told earlier that city council kingpin Larry Kochert, a Democrat, was among those wangling precious invitations to pose as VIPs and attend the speech from a visit that wouldn’t have happened unless Mitch McConnell, a Republican, brought W to town to raise the big bucks. Did he make it to the party on time?

Presumably Slippery Larry was seeking quality time to commiserate with the Chief Executive over their plunging favorability ratings. Waiter, two lame duck soufflés – and hold the smoke.

A “surge” from one, a “ban” from another, and speaking of bans, now would be a good time for me to divulge that in light of my ejection from the last city council meeting – admittedly, Kochert called that one right – I’ve decided to hand myself a one-meeting suspension as penance. I call upon my esteemed fellow transgressor to follow suit, but whether or not he does, my evening off will be Monday, March 5.

Did I mention a beer dinner at Bistro New Albany on Monday, March 5?

Meanwhile, today’s Tribune reports the one positive thing to emerge from today’s presidential photo-op:

NA-FC Superintendent: Silver Street not scheduled to close, by Eric Scott Campbell.

Shuttering the 90-year-old institution is “not something we’ve talked about,” (Superintendent Dennis) Brooks told The Tribune on Thursday.

“The school’s an old school, and for several years we’ve had discussions about facilities districtwide. ... We have a committee that is looking at all of our school facilities, but there’s been no decision made to close any school,” Brooks said …

… The superintendent surmised that there’s been “a lot of emotion about [the school’s anniversary] and I think it’s caused people to think more about the school than they would otherwise.”

Didn’t they used to hold ward heeling classes in the councilman’s garage – or was that Haiti?